Interaction

With my final year project starting to rear its ugly head I've been beginning to wonder what I shall create as my summation of 3 years of education studying Audio & Music Technology at the University of the West of England.

I'm becoming increasingly interested in live electronic performance and the associated technologies and interfaces - ironic considering I'm a music tech student! The first time I ever began to think outside the box in terms of live performance was watching this performance by Bloc Party on Later...with Jools Holland. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P-qjro4g_w. I thought having the bass player playing a percussion/second drum part using just a sample pad was a really simple but effective idea, as was all the layering and looping of the guitars and vocals.

We recently had a guest lecture from the fantastic Imogen Heap. One of our lecturers, Dr Tom Mitchell, built some software for her to use a new piece of hardware live on stage. She is always looking for ways to be interesting and innovative and not just play the album exactly the same live, a view point I have always agreed with. She discussed how on her current tour she has microphones on her wrists, then using these mics she records noises on stage and uses them to create a backbeat for her song. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-P-qjro4g_w. This is a video of her amazing song hide and seek, using her vocal track through a vocoder to create the whole piece.

With the rapid advancement of computer processing, the possibilites available during live performance using computers and other digital interfaces will soon be limitless.